First Ontario hospital goes live with Electronic Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale Certification Program

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As part of Mackenzie Health’s vision to create a world-class health experience for its patients, Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital was the first hospital in Ontario with a full-suite Epic EMR to implement Electronic Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (eCTAS) certification program.

Priority for any emergency department is on triaging patients and identifying those who require immediate medical attention. The eCTAS program improves that process. “The Electronic Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale algorithm paired with our Epic electronic medical record (EMR) works seamlessly to prevent delays in treatment for patients and improve consistency,” said Heather Stewart, Program Director, Emergency, Critical Care, Ambulatory and Patient Flow at Mackenzie Health.

With the adoption of eCTAS a triage nurse’s knowledge, skills and clinical experience are strengthened by decision-support tools embedded in an electronic medical record (EMR) to accurately determine CTAS scores based on objective data points being captured during the triage process.

“Delivering quality care is in our DNA and as we move toward opening Canada’s first smart hospital we continue to adopt leading edge technology to better the care experience of our patients,” says Heather Stewart, Program Director, Emergency, Critical Care, Ambulatory and Patient Flow. “The journey began in 2017 with the implementation of a full-suite Epic EMR at Mackenzie Health and now continues with the implementation of eCTAS this past June.”

Project planning on eCTAS began soon after the organization’s adoption of a full-suite Epic EMR in July 2017. It took a collaborative five months between Mackenzie Health’s emergency department, clinical informatics and Epic technical support team to analyze user-end engagement, application build, testing and training.

The team and this recently-adopted technology will carry through to the new Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital when it opens its doors in late 2020 and Mackenzie Health grows to include two hospitals – Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital and Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital – and its comprehensive network of community-based services.